(Transcription of audio file from 00:10 to 00:26 omitted.)

Tonight we need to begin [our series], and we begin with why theology matters. Why do this course? I want to draw attention to [a quote] by John Calvin from the Institutes of the Christian Religion. This is John Calvin (1509-1564). He wrote the Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1536. He was twemty-seven years old. He had not even had a call to a church at that point. Actually, he was not even sure that was what God wanted him to do. But he writes one of the most important texts in theology that has ever been written, which began with this sentence. The book grew [very fast]. It sort of grew and grew, and for the next twemty-five years he kept adding to this volume so that the finally edition was four times the size of the first edition. But it began with this quotation, and it really did not change much from edition to edition:

Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But, while joined by many bonds, which one precedes and brings forth the other is not easy to discern.John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, I.i.1

I think Calvin is borrowing maybe from the ancient Greeks a little here—the motto “know thyself.” The way we know ourselves is to actually know God, and in knowing God we also come to know a little bit about ourselves, because we are created in the image of God. So there are God-like qualities that are actually reflected in the creation of man after the image of God.

The Disciplines of Theology⤒🔗

Let us begin with some of the disciplines of theology. I am not going to spend too much time here, but I just want to give you a little feel for the various branches of theology, some of which you will immediately recognize.

Exegesis←↰⤒🔗

We begin with exegesis (sometimes called exegetical theology). That is the kind of theology that engages verses of Scripture, looks at clauses and nouns and verbs and asks questions about the grammar and the syntax, and actually focuses on the “microcosm” of the Bible. In order to do proper exegetical theology, you need somebody to know the original languages—Greek and Hebrew and possible a little bit of Aramaic (i.e., the end of the book of Daniel). If you pick up a commentary, for example (and many of you use a commentary in your Bible classes that you attend), somebody in that commentary has gone into the depths of the original language and asked questions as to what a particular text may mean. So you have exegesis, or exegetically theology.

Biblical Theology←↰⤒🔗

Then secondly: Biblical theology. This does not mean what you might think it means. Sometimes we ask questions like, “What does John have to say about…?” or “What does Paul have to say about…?” or “What does Peter have to say about…?” What are the particular emphases, for example, of the prophet Isaiah in contrast to Ezekiel? The answer to that would be that Isaiah has a considerable emphasis on the holiness of God. He mentions the word “holy” something like one hundred times in the course of his prophecy. He is affected by the vision that he himself saw and records in Isaiah 6: “Holy, holy, holy.” So Isaiah has a peculiar emphasis on the holiness of God.

[Biblical theology] is emphasizing individual authors, or emphasizing individual books, or even emphasizing particular periods in redemptive history. What was God teaching in the time of the Exodus? What was God teaching at the time of the exile? Or the return from exile? What are the particular emphases of that period? That is what we would call biblical theology.

(Transcription of audio file from 05:14 to 05:29 omitted.)

Historical Theology←↰⤒🔗

Historical theology. What have people said at various stages in history? What were the questions they asked? What were the conclusions they drew? For example, we have just mentioned Calvin in the sixteenth century, and it would be appropriate in theology to look at sixteenth century theology and the peculiar emphases. Or for us who are Presbyterians in the room, the seventeenth century and the time of the Westminster Confession (1645)—what are the peculiar emphases of the seventeenth century? And one of the peculiar emphases of the seventeenth century would be Calvinism; that is, an emphasis on the sovereignty of God and on doctrines like election and predestination and so on.

Systematic Theology←↰⤒🔗

Systematic theology. [This] is in part what this course is principally about, because we are going be asking not the “little” questions (i.e., what does Paul say? Or John say? Or various periods of redemptive history, or even what people have taught down through history). We are going be asking the big picture question: What does the whole Bible have to say? What does the whole Bible have to say about atonement? About forgiveness? About calling? About gifting?

And in order to answer that question, you have to know a lot of things. In order to answer the big picture, you need to actually know the little pictures. Actually, you need to know all the little pictures and how they relate together in order to address the big question of systematic theology.

Systematic theology also engages some of the philosophical questions. For example, if you are living in 2012 you cannot engage in anything—theology or anything else—without engaging in post-modernity. Post-modernity questions the validity of truth. (There is no such thing as a truth-statement; truth is relative; what is true for you may not be true for me.) Well, systematic theology has to engage that. How do we know that something is true? When we make statements and claim truthfulness about these statements, how do we verify the truthfulness of those statements?

Apologetics←↰⤒🔗

Then there are other branches, and we will pass over some of them. Apologetics, for example: How to commend the faith against all kinds of philosophical opposition and how to argue the veracity of the faith.

Ethics←↰⤒🔗

Ethics is a very important discipline in theology. What are the implications of this doctrine or that doctrine for behaviour? How should I respond? How should I behave? How should we then live (to quote a title of a very important book by Francis Schaeffer)?

Missiology←↰⤒🔗

Missions. What is the implication of theology for missions? Truth is true no matter where it is, but it faces particular types of opposition and it has to be sensitive to particular cultural emphases in various parts of the world. So the way we do systematic theology and the way we talk about theology has to be sensitive to the call of the gospel to go into all the world and engage all kinds of people groups and so on. So studies like sociology and anthropology will affect the way we think about missions. Anyone training to be a missionary, for example, who goes off to mission school and gets months or years long becoming acclimated to the particular context (i.e., the Spanish context, or the Chinese context, or the Russian context, or the European context), some of the things that they will be studying will be in the area of sociology and anthropology.

Spiritual Theology←↰⤒🔗

Spiritual theology. What does theology have to say about devotion? About the way we worship? What are the particular emphases of our worship—prayer, praise, singing, personal prayer, corporate prayer? We are going to end these meetings as we always end these meetings: Whether we are a few or many, we end in a time of prayer. Why have corporate prayer? Because theology is not true theology until it glorifies God at the throne in prayer. That is going to be a very important emphasis.

Liturgical Theology←↰⤒🔗

Liturgy. I do not want to say too much about that, but our theology affects the way we worship publicly on the Lord’s Day. Why do we begin with a call to worship? Why do we have a confession of sin in our worship? Why do we say the Apostles’ Creed in worship? Why do we sing the materials that we sing? [It is about] the kind of things that we do in public worship. Liturgical theology is also a branch of theology.

Practical Theology←↰⤒🔗

And then finally, practical theology. How should we understand and further God’s work in our particular roles? Some of you are lawyers and doctors, some of you are housewives, some of you are mothers rearing children, some of you home-schoolers—you are engaged in various kinds of activities, and you want to know, “How does this theology impact what I do from day to day?”

(Transcription of audio file from 12:31 to 12:55 and 13:08 to 13:34 omitted.)

Uses of Theology←⤒🔗

Secondly: the uses of theology. Look at that wonderful quotation [in the handout] from William Perkins. William Perkins lived from 1558-1602. If you had been a gospel minister in the late 1500s in England, there were only two places that you would go to study to be that minister, and that would be either Oxford or Cambridge. And Oxford was a den of Arminianism at that period in its history, and Cambridge was the place to go if you wanted to hear a theology à la John Calvin. William Perkins had drunk from the well of John Calvin, and he was a fire-breathing Calvinist. He defines theology as, “Theology is the science of living blessedly forever.”

(Transcription of audio file from 14:18 to 15:37 omitted.)

What thrills me about a packed room like this is the capacity to which all of us are just going to be incredibly blessed! Because if we really get it, we are going to be so blessed! Because true theology provides the bedrock to enable us to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Actually, that is what the Westminster Divines said in the Shorter Catechism: “What is the chief end of men? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever” (Q&A 1). And I think they were building on the kinds of things that William Perkins and others had been saying about what theology actually is. It is to enable you to live the blessed life. How do you live the blessed life? Everyone in the world is looking for the blessed life. And what is it? It is to have a house at the beach, it is to have enough money that you can retire early and play golf, or take wonderful vacations, or whatever answer. And those are not wrong in themselves (don’t misunderstand me), but they are not ends in themselves either. They are wonderful if you can get them, and I would not say no to any of them. But they do not give you the blessed life. If you think that is all you need to get the blessed life, you are sadly mistaken. But true theology gives you such a blessing.

(Transcription of audio file from 17:05 to 17:23 and 17:30 to 17:36 omitted.)

Distorted Models←↰⤒🔗

Now, look at the stickmen [in the handout]. I wanted the first one to be a person who is all legs. [This type of Christian says] it is all about practice. You know this Christian. “I just want to be practical. I don’t want theology. I can’t be bothered with theology. I can’t be bothered reading books. I can’t be bothered studying. All I want is practice. Tell me what to do.” It is the person who wants the book that says Ten Ways to Make Me Happy rather than Louis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology. The first distorted model is the Christian who is all legs and nothing else.

(Transcription of audio file from 18:12 to 18:33 omitted.)

The second one is all heart—all heart and no head and no legs. It is the Christian who says, “I love Jesus, and that is enough.” You have to respect somebody who loves Jesus for sure, but it is unhealthy. Cardiologists here, doctors here—this is not healthy. You need a body to be able to support this kind of heart. This is the Christian who is all about emotion. It is all about feeling. It is how they feel. And they can be up one day and down the next, because they have no structure, they have no theology. They are driven by mood-swings. It is like the pubescent teenager Christian, driven by mood-swings! The goal of this Christian is devotion only. Perhaps they talk a lot about community and fellowship and relationship, but they regard the study of theology with some suspicion. There is a warning here from Psalm 32:9: “Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, that needs to be driven by bit and bridle.” Use your understanding. You have a mind—use it.

The third distortion is all head and not much else. Now perhaps there are some of that category here! “I just want to be smarter than everybody else. I want to be able to win the argument over the water cooler about creation, or election, or what happens to those who never hear the gospel. I am just interested in winning the argument.” All head, bookish, egghead. There is a warning in here from Paul: “Knowledge puffs up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). I think Paul was peculiarly sensitive to that. Paul was bookish. Paul had a phenomenal education; he was educated in the best rabbinical school of his day. Gamaliel was considered to be one of the best teachers of the day. Paul can go up against every theologian that has ever been. And they are still trying to fathom what Paul actually meant. And I think Paul is particularly sensitive to the fact that this kind of thing has a peculiar temptation: It can puff you up. It can make you proud.

Correct Model←↰⤒🔗

Unless you have a balance of head, heart, and legs in terms of practice—affection, mind and the whole being, the whole of life, given for the gospel—there is always going to be a problem. So the correct model is balancing head and heart. Balancing mind and affections. Look at the quotation from Jim Packer: “Theology is for doxology and devotion—that is, the praise of God and the practice of godliness” (Concise Theology, 1953). That is what theology is for. It is for the praise of God and for the practice of godliness.

Biblical Examples of Theology at Work←⤒🔗

Now, biblical examples of theology at work.

The Bible Employs and Encourages the Use of Theology←↰⤒🔗

I have some texts here that demonstrate that [even though the Bible] is not a book on systematic theology (it does not read like Hodge’s Systematic Theology or Berkhof’s Systematic Theology, or Jim Packer’s Knowing God or Sinclair Ferguson’s The Christian Life—those books have systematized and brought together what the whole Bible has to say about individual topics), but the Bible itself is conscious of doing that too. Let’s look at a couple of them.

1 Corinthians 14:20: “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.” Paul is addressing a church in Corinth that was driven by a lot of emotional thought, driven by gifts of the Spirit, driven by tongues and prophecy, and so on. And as Paul says on many an occasion when he writes to the Corinthians, they often behaved like children. One of the things that children are actually not very good at doing is thinking. You need to stop and think about what you are doing. Think about what you are doing.

Romans 6:17: “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.” Is not that an interesting phrase? Paul says that they have been delivered to what? You might think that Paul would say, “You have been delivered to Jesus” or “You have been delivered to the gospel.” And both of those would be true. But actually what he says is: “You have been delivered to the standard of teaching.” There is a body of teaching, a body of truth, to which you have been delivered. You have an entirely new worldview and an entirely new way of thinking as a believer.

Now, consider the following [regarding] how the Bible gives us examples of theology at work.

Jesus’ Instruction on the Doctrine of the Trinity←↰⤒🔗

Think about the upper room. Think about John’s Gospel chapters 14, 15, 16, and then the High Priestly prayer in John 17. Think of that section in John’s Gospel. Four chapters. There are only 21 chapters in the Gospel of John, so you have about 20% here of the entire Gospel devoted to an evening. You are writing the life of Jesus, and 20 percent of this life is one evening! That tells you that a Gospel is not just a historical record; it is doing something much more than that. And what is it? What would Jesus want his disciples to know on the eve of his crucifixion? What would you do if you knew you only had 15 hours to live? What would you do? Do you know what Jesus did? He taught about the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity.

Now, it does not read [like the Westminster Confession], which says:

In the unity of the Godhead there be three Persons of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son.Westminster Confession of Faith, 1645, 2:3.

Isn’t that wonderful? You just want to cut that out and put it on a little sticky-note on the fridge, because that is what distinguishes Christianity from every other religion in the world—the doctrine of the Trinity. It is absolutely essentially. If you take out the doctrine of the Trinity, you do not have Christianity. The gospel as we know it can only function if God is Triune.

(Transcription of audio file from 27:34 to 28:01 omitted.)

Look how Jesus talks about it in the upper room:

I am in the Father and the Father is in me…the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.John 14:10-11, ESVI will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.John 14:16, ESVAll that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.John 15:15, ESVWhoever hates me hates my Father also.John 15:23, ESVI am going to him who sent me…if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.John 16:5, 7, ESV

He is talking about himself, Jesus, but he is talking about his Father. “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” And he is talking about going away and sending a representative agent who will be Jesus dwelling in the hearts of his people representatively by the Holy Spirit. And you say: What?!

Imagine it: These disciples in the upper room are Jews. They are converted Jews, but they are Jews. What is the central belief of Judaism? Deut. 6:4, the Shema of Israel: “Behold, the LORD your God is one.” And Jesus is saying in the upper room that there is more than one who is that one God! There is only one God, but there is more than one who is that one God, because the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. I find that quite amazing. I am always dumbfounded that the thing that Jesus wanted to teach the disciples on the eve of his crucifixion was the doctrine of the Trinity, because he felt that that would be the most helpful thing to help his disciples live the blessed life.

Paul Addressing the Church at Philippi←↰⤒🔗

Look at the second example here: Paul is addressing the church at Philippi. This is a very familiar text:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.Philippians 2:5-11, ESV

There are a zillion things in that text that we will draw attention to when we come to study the person and work of Christ. Later on in this course we will be looking at his person and we will be looking at his work. Look at some of the things here that he talks about.

He talks about three states of Christ: a state of Christ before he became incarnate (verse 6: “though he was in the form of God” and “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped”—he is talking about Jesus before the incarnation), then he talks about Jesus after the incarnation, and then he talks about Jesus exalted and given a name which is above every name. So three different states of Christ: Before incarnation, after incarnation, and exaltation.

Look at the very end of the text: [God] gives to him a name, that “every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (verse 11). The Greek word is “Kyrios.” Kyrios is the Greek translation of the Hebrew divine name for God. For Jews this is tantamount to blasphemy, because it is attributing the divine name—Jehovah, Yahweh, that name that God gives to Moses in Exodus 3, the special name of God, the covenant name of God—here to Jesus. It is a clear declaration of the deity of Jesus.

Now, what is the point of Philippians 2? Well, Paul uses this word “emptied himself.” There is a little bit of a conundrum here about the translation here of the Greek word “kenosis”—he emptied himself (we will come back to that later in the course). But what is Paul getting at? Jesus was God. But he denied himself; he drew a veil over all his rights and privileges for your sake and mine.

(Transcription of audio file from 33:50 to 34:24 omitted.)

“Have this mind among you.” What is Paul addressing? He is addressing two women in the church at Philippi, Euodia and Syntyche. Paul wants them to stop exercising this one-upmanship which was in the church at Philippi. Paul loved this church at Philippi. But how does he address the spirit of pride and the spirit of one-upmanship? He introduces massive theology of the incarnation of Jesus. He is using theology to produce an ethical response in the church at Philippi!

Author of Hebrews Encouraging Assurance←↰⤒🔗

Look at the third example. The author of Hebrews is encouraging assurance in the midst of apostasy. Hebrews 6: “Let us leave the elementary doctrine.” The ABCs. He wants us to go beyond that.

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance…For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance.Hebrews 6:1a, 4-6a, ESV

You are very familiar with that passage in Hebrews 6. It is a very scary passage. The author of Hebrews seems to be suggesting there are those who make a profession of faith but fail to persevere, they yield to apostasy, and it is impossible for them to be renewed again to repentance. There are lots of questions arising in your minds. [Later in the series], when we are dealing with perseverance of the saints, we will have to come back to this passage, and discuss how the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints squares with this passage.

(Transcription of audio file from 36:34 to 37:04 omitted.)

But having said all of that, look at [verse 9]:

Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.Hebrews 6:9, ESV

Having scared them witless, he now pulls back a little and says, “I am assured of better things for you.” He wants to exhort them to perseverance—he gives them this dire warning—and then he wants to comfort them. Now, how is he going to comfort them? What is the basis of our assurance?

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.”Hebrews 6:13-14, ESV

He is referring to the covenant that God made with Abraham (Genesis 12, 15, and 17). He is using covenant theology to encourage assurance! What is the basis upon which I may be assured? Not my experience. Not ultimately my promises to persevere. Certainly not my efforts! It is the promise that God has made: Having begun a good work, I will complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ. The assurance is outside of ourselves. The assurance is in the fact that God is a covenant-making, covenant-keeping God. It is in the immutability of the promises of God. What is Hebrews 6 doing? It is using theology in the interests of assurance to live the blessed life.

(Transcription of audio file from 38:48 to 38:58 omitted.)

Encouraging Generosity in Giving.←↰⤒🔗

Then a very familiar passage, especially at stewardship season from 2 Corinthians 8:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.2 Corinthians 8:9, ESV

2 Corinthians 8 and 9 are all about the offering that Paul was trying to raise for the poor Christians in Jerusalem from Gentile churches largely in Asia Minor, and especially in Corinth. And what does he use? How does he encourage giving? How does he encourage stewardship? By employing the doctrine of the atonement! He is using the doctrine of the atonement to encourage stewardship and liberality.

First and Last Thoughts←⤒🔗

Now, first and last thoughts. This is by no means full here, but a few things that come to mind.

Theology and Worship←↰⤒🔗

First of all, theology and worship. As we begin this journey, this adventure, it is like reading Lord of the Rings. Every time I read that opening couple of pages, you are off on an adventure. It is a journey. It is like Pilgrim’s Progress. We are on an adventure. But what is the goal here? The goal is worship—the worship of our God.

(Transcription of audio file from 40:20 to 40:53 and 41:04 to 41:20 omitted.)

 Another quotation here from Jim Packer:

Theologies which cannot be sung (or prayed for that matter) are certainly wrong at a deep level, and such theologies leave me, in both senses, cold; cold-hearted and uninterested.JI Packer, Forward to God Has Spoken, 1979

I am not interested in a theology that I cannot sing. If I cannot sing it, if I cannot pray it, if it does not drive me to my knees to worship God, I am not interested in it. And that is why I am not interested in philosophical theology, although it is a necessary branch. I just want the conclusion; I am not really interested in it at any deep level. Theology and worship. So the reason why we come to this course and the reason why we make this commitment to spend two years on a pilgrimage through the A-Z of the theology is because I want to be able to worship God better than I do. I want him to have all of my mind, and I want him to have all of my affections, and I want him to have all of my life. Take my life, take my thoughts, take my heart, and take my affections.

Theology and the Limitations of Reason←↰⤒🔗

The second thing: theology and the limitations of reason. I love this quotation from William Ames (William Ames was a contemporary of Perkins; Perkins was the guy who defined theology as “the science of living blessedly forever”): “Faith is the resting of the heart on God” (The Marrow of Theology, 1997).

God made us to be explorers. That is why I check every day the NASA site. I have it on my iPhone. I check for the latest picture from Curiosity. I am just completely bowled over. I am bowled over by the clarity of the pictures—Mount Sharp, etc. God made that. And God made that for us as the first human beings to see it with that clarity. Isn’t that breath-taking? That takes my breath away! We are going to look at things in this course, and we are going to ask questions, and sometimes we are going to come right to the very edge, and perhaps for some of you go over the edge and say, “Do you really think we should ask that question?” Because at a certain point, Deuteronomy 29:29 kicks in: “The secret things belong unto the LORD, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children.” We want to examine the things that are revealed.

We ask questions about the relationship between good and evil. How does a good God permit evil in the world? Why didn’t he stop it? I have several sentences [in the handout] from Job 38 and 40, because this is the lesson that Job had to learn: At a certain point you have to throw up your hands and say, “I do not understand this. I do not know the answer to this question.” Students will ask me questions in seminary, and sometimes I have to say, “I have no idea. I don’t know.” Sometimes it is because of my lack of understanding, but sometimes is it because I don’t think God has revealed the answer to that question. The secret things belong unto him, and at some point you have to stop. It is not important that you understand; what is important is that he understands. He knows what he is doing. So there are limits to reason.

(Transcription of audio file from 45:41 to 45:50 omitted.)

Theology and Scripture←↰⤒🔗

And finally, theology and Scripture. Look at this wonderful quote from Augustine:

How amazing is the profundity of your words! To look into that depth makes me shudder, but it is the shudder of awe, the trembling of love.Augustine, Confessions, 12.14.17

What is the point of the study of theology? To make us fall in love with Scripture. Psalm 119:97: “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.”